Ryoko sat bored on the couch, practically falling asleep, Hiroki at her side.
“I’m so bored.” She said. “I wonder what’s on TV.” She flipped through the channels and saw there was nothing on. Nothing on, that is, until she found the channel that was showing the elimination rounds for the college gymnastics. She then saw Aya standing in the middle of a big blue mat with a white square around it.
“Hey, isn’t that Tenchi’s new girlfriend?” she said.
"Yep, that's her," Hiroki said.
“What are you watching Ryoko? Ugh! It’s her! That’s the girl who took my Tenchi!” Ayeka said, entering the room.
“Get over it, Ayeka. He doesn’t like you, he never has, and he never will.”
“You be quiet, Ryoko!”
For a while, they sat there, on that big couch in Tenchi’s living room, in silence. They watched Aya as she danced and leaped from the middle of the floor to a corner. She ran forward and did a round-off backhandspring, followed by a back layout and a double back tuck. She did a full turn on her toes and then did a back walkover. She did some more dancing before she threw her self on the floor and did some choreography on the floor. She pushed up into a handstand and bent forward to a front walkover. She did another tumbling pass after going back into another corner, which consisted of a front handspring, front pike layout, double front tuck, half twist. She did more choreography and dancing leaps, then a tumbling pass, than another series and dance steps and jumps, then another tumbling pass, and concluded it with a handstand, holding it and straddling her legs. She landed in a split.
“Hey, she’s pretty good.” Ryoko said. Ayeka said nothing.
Back at the local gym, the teams were waiting for the scores of the third competitors in each team. Aya got a 9.45, a very good score. She put her jacket on and drank some still icy cold water while she watched the other girls perform. As she did, she thought about everything that had happened in the previous two months. She looked dazed, so her teammates waved a hand in front of her face. She cleared her mind and watched the gymnasts perform.
Suddenly, as she was watching a student from Kyoto University do her beam routine, she had this strange feeling that there was evil somewhere in Japan, and that she was needed to find and fight it. But she shook her head and didn't believe it.
It can't be Kagato, she thought, he's dead. Maybe it’s a new enemy…
Before long, all the gymnasts for each school had done their routines for their events. Then it was time for the next rotation. The Twisters were on beam and the Kobras were on floor.
Aya was last to go on beam, so after a while, she got bored. She decided to go out and get some fresh air. She watched the clouds and looked at the cars passing by, pointing out the ones she liked. After a moment of watching the clouds, she went back inside and watched until it was her turn for performing again.
Aya stood about six feet from the beam ready to do her routine. It was her turn for beam. She took in a deep breath.
"Ready," she whispered. This was, by far, the toughest routine.
Finally, she began. She soluted the judge, and ran up to the spring board and did a front tuck on. She high kicked and leaped to the end. She did a more jumps and whipped her hands around.
A young guy with spiky black hair watched the tournament on TV. He had a scratch across his eye, and one on his cheek in the shape if an x (think hard, you'll figure out who it is). His old perverted friend (again, think hard, who could it be?) sat next to him, and watched too. He drooled at all the muscular women doing difficult tricks, while his VERY strong, overly powered ex-trainee's wife, who was somewhat bossy and aggressive (I think you got it now), and his other ex-trainee, who was short and bald, sat and watched too.
They watched Aya do her beam routine.
"Here comes her tumbling pass," the commenters on the TV had said. Aya did a back-handspring, layout, layout stepout pass, and didn't swivel or loose her balance. "She's a great gymnast, Olympic material. She will be in the next Olympics, this summer, and apparently, from what we've heard, they will be held in Japan.
"Wow, she's really good," said the old pervert's VERY strong, overly powered ex-trainee's bossy and aggressive wife. "I bet she could win Japan the gold medal for gymnastics!"
"You're right, Chi-Chi, I think she's good too," the old pervert said. He drooled at the sight of the beautiful, muscular woman on the beam and the others that performed. They all continued to watch in silence as the other gymnasts performed.
Aya was drinking some of her water. She was tired after the beam routine, but she was glad that it went well. She waited until it was time for TU to do bars. That went very smooth when she did it. All that was left was her vault routine, the routine she hated most. She had seen so many vault injuries, it occasionally happened to her, but she was still worried. When it was her turn, she took in a deep breath, saluted the judges, and stepped onto the mat.
She ran up to the vault, and about 3 feet away from it she did a round-off, and did a backwards flip over it, touching her hands on the vault and landing with her feet on the floor. As she landed, her ankle twisted and she fell to the ground. Determined to get an okay score, since her fall had ruined her chance of a high one, she painfully stood up and put her weight on her not twisted ankle. She did her crooked finish and limped over to the sidelines. There her teammates were, to hold her up and walk her to her seat.
Tenchi was frantic. He wanted to know if she was okay. He had to know if she was okay. He rushed down, and met her and her teammates in their section.
"You okay?" he asked Aya.
"I'm fine," she replied. "I've been through worse, haven't I?" She winked. He smiled. Aya always did have bones of steel.
Tenchi, Hiroki, and Aya were all in Aya's apartment. Hiroki had teleported there to see how she was doing. They were watching the sports part of the news, and the highlights of the elimination rounds were on. Of course, Aya's twisting her ankle was the main highlight (as well as Aya's team winning the semifinals), and she was sick of watching it.
"You know Aya, I could tell on the TV Tenchi really freaked out when you twisted your ankle," Hiroki said. The TV showed the crowd again as Aya fell. “Like that!” Hiroki said pointing. Tenchi blushed.
"I kinda noticed," Aya said blushing too. Suddenly a news flash flashed across the screen. There was an ugly green guy broadcasting.
"My name is Cell. I'm here to tell you about a World Martial Arts Tournament." he said. "It will be held 9 days from now.
"Here are the rules: It will be like any normal martial arts tournament, but if you die, you will of course, be disqualified. Here's an example of what you'll be up against." He fired an energy ball without even looking away, which made a huge hole in the building, and blew up several others behind it, too. "Good luck!" The TV went back to normal.
Aya sat with her hands over her mouth, Hiroki had his mouth wide open, and Tenchi was staring, astonished, at the TV. They all looked at each other.
"I'll call Serena. You call Ryoko and them," Aya said to Tenchi. She picked up her cell phone and let Tenchi use her regular phone. She told Serena all about it, while Tenchi told Ryoko, who had already seen the news, to start training. Then, Aya received a call from the school.
"School's been canceled. WHOPEE!!!!" She jumped and pranced around Tenchi stared at her.
"What?" she said. He pointed to her ankle.
"Oh, I guess it's all better now." She laughed sheepishly.
"Oh well," Tenchi said. "We've got more important things to do. We better go to Okoyama and train with everyone else. We're gonna beat this guy!"
Okay, I know it's hardly anything like real olympic gymnastics, but hey, I tried.
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Back to Chapter 6
On to Chapter 8: No Need to Train
